Not Nothing
by Yamazing
Summary: Albus brings Scorpius a cake on Valentine's Day, but it's not romantic, he swears. Scorpius won't think so, either, right? Sure... Then, when Scorpius gets all quiet and closed off, they both have to figure out why, and what they're willing to do about it.
1. Chapter 1

**My first published Scorbus fic! I hope it's great, because I really ship them, and there are no reasons not to as far as I'm concerned. There was chemistry in that book, I swear. It was there  
I want to thank one of my friends for encouraging me to write this. (Actually, though, shame. You've brought another monster into the world, borne of my less-fast-than-lighting fingers and my hyperactive brain.)  
Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy it, and maybe go so far as to read it! Wow, wouldn't that be great.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Sorry. The only thing I could've made better at all would've been the outcome of Scorbus in The Cursed Child, because that was sad, and that alone is not enough to transfer ownership...**

* * *

Albus gets a cake for Scorpius on Valentine's Day. It's not a romantic gesture at all, no matter how much it might seem like one to an outsider. He just wants Scorpius to know how much he values their friendship, and he trusts that Scorpius will recognise it for what it is. They've been friends for so long that it only makes sense to celebrate it in some way.

Plus, he's really been craving cake recently.

So he goes to Luna's pastry shop, since he known how good her cakes taste, if also looking slightly unconventional. He buys a turquoise cake in the shape of a turtle, because he feels like Scorpius would like it, and pays quickly. He eagerly thinks of taking the cake to Scorpius' place and eating it, and speeds up his already fast exit.

Before he makes it out the door, Luna asks, "Getting it for anyone special?" smiling at him like she knows something that he doesn't. As usual.

"A good friend, yeah," he responds, smiling back. He's gotten used to her smiles by now.

Luna's smile turns distinctly more smug, but Albus doesn't question it. This is Luna, so that'd be pointless.

He hurries out of the door, and on the way to the nearest public floo, Albus passes by a shop that has Valentines cards on display in the window. The idea strikes him to get a card to go with the cake, and and maybe write some stuff to go along with the message the cake is supposed to convey, about how much he values Scorpius. It's mostly out of kindness, but he does also feel a little bit guilty about the fact that he got this cake partially because he was hungry.

Wait. He didn't mean to admit that.

Anyways, he gets the card and awkwardly tries to convey his message in words on a piece of paper. It's not perfect, but it's good, and all genuine, too. He sticks the note to the top of the cake box with magic and heads off again towards the nearest floo.

* * *

Scorpius has been having a fine Valentine's Day, but only fine. Nothing's happened yet, and while he wasn't really expecting anything to, it's still kind of disappointing. Pitiful as it may seem, at about noon, he had gone and bought himself some chocolate- because hey, he was hungry- and is now munching on it. He's also reading while he snuggles further into the blankets wrapped around him, and while he has to admit that he's worried about the chocolate getting on his book, the arrangement is too cozy to resist.

Just as he gets to the good part, the floo chimes, telling him that someone wants to enter. He's sorely tempted to ignore it and continue reading, but his polite side convinces him to get up.

He drags himself to the floo, realizing too late that he's still in his pajamas. Deciding he doesn't care enough to do anything about it, he presses the button to show him who it is, forcing a polite smile onto his face.

The stiff smile melts into a genuine one when he sees Albus' head looking around from wherever he is. He feels himself lightly blush at seeing Albus as well, which has, to his great dismay, become normal. He quickly let's Albus come through the floo, stepping back as his friend falls into his living room.

His blush intensifies as he sees the cake and Valentine's card in Albus' hands.

"Hi!" Albus smiles, dusting himself off with one hand as he balances the cake in the other. "I brought cake."

"Hi," Scorpius responds, still blushing.

He has to wonder what this might mean. He can objectively realize how high the chances are that Albus is just making a friendly gesture. He also knows that Albus was probably just in the mood for some cake.

Still, though.

Albus brought Scorpius a cake. And a card. A Valentine's card.

On Valentine's Day.

It doesn't just seem like a friendly gesture, okay?

He doesn't want to let himself hope this means something more than just "we're friends, let's eat cake", but it's already too late. He tries to put the unwelcome thought out of his mind as he and Albus walk to the kitchen. Judging by the red _still_ spreading along his face and now his neck a little bit, too, it doesn't really work. Albus, having inherited some degree of thickheaded-ness (from his father, judging from the stories Scorpius has heard) doesn't notice. Scorpius is thankful for the small mercy.

When they get to the kitchen, Scorpius can't help but take a moment to appreciate the cake that Albus brought. It's clearly from Luna's, which just makes it all the better. It looks really good, and it distracts from some of the tentative hope that's been filling him since Albus arrived.

"The cake looks good. Luna?" Scorpius asks, trying to start a conversation. Maybe it'll work as a further distraction.

"Yeah, course. Luna's great." They smile at each other, thinking of Luna. "How's your Valentine's Day been going?" Albus continues.

"Fine, I think."

"Anything planned?"

"No. You?"

"No, I was just thinking that I'd drop in over here, and maybe stay for a while and eat the cake."

"Yeah, that sounds nice. I was just relaxing and having fun reading before you got here, so you can stay however long you want. The book was getting pretty good though."

"What're you reading now?"

It's nice when they have conversations like these. Calm and casual while both of them are still engaged and genuinely interested. They continue talking while they cut the cake, trying to make the process less gruesome than simply chopping the turtle's head off.

As expected, it's delicious. After they finish the cake, they sit together and talk, and eventually just coexist. Scorpius ends up reading on the couch while Albus sits next to him, alternating between thinking, being on his phone, and reading.

At some point, Scorpius feels pressure on his shoulder and looks down to see that Albus has fallen asleep on him. He smiles and goes back to reading. Only half an hour later, when Albus wakes up, does he realize that maybe Albus wouldn't be the most comfortable with the idea of sleeping on him.

"Sorry, should I have woken you up earlier?" He asks, trying not to sound too worried.

"Nah, it's alright," Albus responds. "I should probably get home now though. Thanks for eating cake and hanging out." Albus smiles lazily at Scorpius, clearly still sleepy from his nap, and it makes Scorpius' heart flop pathetically in his chest.

"Thanks for the cake."

"No problem."

Then Albus gets up, stretches, and walks right out of the floo.

After Albus is gone, Scorpius immediately takes the card to his room to read it. He tries not to have any unrealistic expectations, but it's hard not too. As he carefully takes it out of the envelope and unfolds it, he's almost tempted to close his eyes, close the card, and just put it away. He feels like knowing that it says something bad might be worse than not knowing what it says at all.

Eventually, he gets up the nerve to read it.

It's relatively long, but he finds that in its multiple paragraphs, nothing comes off as anything past platonic. He almost feels like crying, but he can't even do that.

The card is too nice. It shows that Albus really values him, it does.

But just as a friend.

He shoves aside the part of him that is a little bit broken hearted and takes the card to his desk. He opens a drawer and takes a moment to think and reflect on everything in the drawer as he gets mentally ready to put the card away.

Scorpius doesn't want to admit to himself that the drawer is creepy. Sure, it could definitely be considered as such by anyone else… well, it _is_ creepy, but that isn't the point. It isn't as if he's doing anything wrong. He isn't invading Albus' privacy or doing anything objectionable with the collection.

He just likes to look at it sometimes. To remind himself that he _does_ have a best friend, and even sometimes just that not everyone dislikes him. It helps him be happy, when he needs the help, and that's all.

Still, having almost everything Albus had given him, not including things too big to fit, in a drawer in his room, is admittedly no small degree of creepy.

It's just small things, not only in size, but also in importance. Whenever Albus makes something, he always seems to want to give it to Scorpius, and no one else. Albus probably gives stuff to other people too, in all honesty, but Scorpius has yet to notice anyone. So Scorpius has a fairly large collection of small things Albus's given him over the years.

As he looks through everything, which he tends to do when he's going to add something like now, he embraces the inevitable trip down memory lane.

The first thing that stands out to him is from really long ago. When he and Scorpius were starting at Hogwarts, they were pretty shy. After finding each other, they didn't really venture out or try to connect to anyone else. That's how it had been for the first one or two years. They had an abundance of free time created by, for one, not having to save the world, and also from having absolutely no social life outside of each other. They'd often used this time to fuel projects that one of them would think of, and after proposing it to the other, they'd be off. Most of these were pretty stupid, but certain ones did yield decent results.

One such project was based around their mutual interest, at the time, in sewing, strange as it may seem. Albus had made a detailed toy in the shape of a mammal of a completely original species, as far as Scorpius could tell. Once Albus was done with it, he'd shrunk it with the help of his parents and given it to Scorpius as a present. Scorpius had put it in the drawer, and now he picks it up and admires it. Since it was originally so much bigger, the detail is really amazing. It's really soft, too, and beautiful in its color choice and combinations.

That isn't the only thing in the drawer, though. Among other things, there's a small glass model that Albus had made during their third year at Hogwarts. It isn't like window glass though. It is colored glass, made for melting into designs. Though it's simple, this piece, specifically, warms Scorpius' heart. It is all on one small, oblong circle. There are two purple blobs near the top end, and one grey cylinder in the middle at the bottom. These are supposed to be two bats and one stalagmite, in a cave. It's definitely simple, but Scorpius almost loves it more for that. It's one of his favorite pieces in the drawer.

He often takes it out and chuckles at it's admirable simplicity. Sometimes he entertains the idea of how nice it would be if life was that simple.

Most of the projects and the things they yielded had been art related, but there were a few that weren't at all.

One such item is a tiny model of Albus and Scorpius practicing spells animatedly in their room. It's almost eerie how detailed and realistic it is, much like the toy mammal Albus had made. If Scorpius casts a spell on the model, the tiny toy Scorpius casts the spell too. It's pretty cute, as well, since both albus and Scorpius are modeled after how they had looked third year, which was basically like small children.

There are also some food related things in the drawer. They don't contain actual food, obviously, but they're all some representations of food. There's even a small original cookbook that Scorpius had shrunk to fit the drawer since he loves it so much. In it are about 20 semi-original recipes that albus had written for Scorpius. Soon after getting the book, Scorpius had set out to cook all 20. Not at once, of course, but over time. He had managed to get through them all and had liked every single one.

There are many other things as well, even if they're not all quite as great.

Really, most of the stuff in the collection is kind of cheesy in retrospect, but Scorpius still loves it.

After the possibly unnecessarily long trip down memory lane, Scorpius gently lays down the card from Albus in the drawer. He goes to read his book but finds that he's too exhausted to enjoy it. He decides to go to sleep early, and does just that.

* * *

Albus goes to sleep sated from the cake and company, and wakes up still happy from the experience. Looking back on yesterday, he'll admit that it may have been a little bit misleading with the cake and card, but he still trusts that Scorpius understood the gesture. He wants to stop worrying about it, so he decides that for once, he'll start on his homework before the last day of break comes around. It isn't pleasant, but he feels accomplished when he finishes at about three, and he wonders if maybe it would be a good idea to contact Scorpius.

He decides to contact him first, today, because going over on announced two days in a row would be a little bit much. He thinks that maybe today, they could go out and explore the world instead of staying in. When he asks Scorpius, they agree to go out and get something to eat first. They both like the small sandwich shop near Luna's, and they haven't been there in a while, so that's where they decide to go.

When they arrive, it's pretty calm, as far as customers go, and they have an easy time finding a relatively nice spot, not too close to any other people, where they can relax in peace. Scorpius orders for both of them, since it's his turn. They always take turns ordering what they think the other might like when they eat together. They sit together in companionable silence as they wait for the order and sip at their twin sodas.

"Hey, do you think that you would ever get Valentine's chocolate for someone you liked?" asks Scorpius. Looking up, Scorpius sees Albus' startled expression- is he asking about yesterday? He clarifies, "I mean, romantically."

Good, then. So Scorpius knows that yesterday wasn't romantic.

"Would you?" Scorpius prompts, after Albus doesn't answer.

"Hm. I think so, except I can't really imagine myself liking anyone at this point. There just aren't any girls at Hogwarts, I guess, that I've met and that I'm compatible with. I kind of think that maybe I'll just have to wait until later in life if I want romance."

"Yeah." Scorpius trails off thoughtfully.

After sitting in contemplative silence for a time, their food arrives.

"Hi," the waiter says, "here's your order. I hope you enjoy your food, and feel free to ask me about anything you need."

The sandwiches look great, as always, and they both eagerly dig in.

After they're done eating, Albus wonders aloud where they should go next.

"Do you want to go to the park? Or maybe the library? You could probably find your book there, and read it."

"I already finished it, and actually I'm probably just gonna head home early today. Sorry," replies Scorpius.

"Oh, yeah, that's fine," Albus says. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, just tired."

After Scorpius leaves, Albus isn't sure what to do. Even though they've both branched out slightly since their early days at Hogwarts, Albus still doesn't have many close friends outside of Scorpius, and absolutely none even nearly as close.

Maybe he should just go home. Sure, it's break and the weekend, but it's not like he has to spend every single second he has hanging out with someone else. After all, he'shad things he likes to do independently before.

This thought in mind, Albus heads home, already formulating what he wants to make when he gets home in his head.

He finally gets home around five as he's mentally putting the final touches onto his plan. He's thinking that he wants to make something artistic this time, and is debating between putting the drawing he's decided on onto plain paper, or doing something more elaborate with it. He'll probably leave that decision until the end, though, and just get to the art. He's slowly gotten more and more into the mood to draw since he came up with the idea.

He sits down at his desk and gets set up to concentrate on his piece. He has a way of losing track of time when he does art. First, he pulls out all of his paint that isn't black, grey, or white, and takes out some colored pencils and pens as well. He has fun for a while just mixing colors, making a background for whatever he might be adding to it later. When he's satisfied with all the colors he splattered onto the paper, he decides on instinct alone to paint and draw the rest with his eyes closed. Before doing this, though, he puts away everything he has out and gets all of the paint, pencils, and pens that he didn't have out before. Then, he sets everything around that paper and closes his eyes, taking a tool unaware of it's color and pausing over the page, trying to decide what exactly to put down. The only reason he can do this, not looking, and still knowing that not everything will go to crap, is because he's learned many spells being Harry Potter's son, and while he can't really do many of them, he does know a sensing spell that allows him to, if nothing else, not draw on the table and be able to safely pick up things and dip brushes into the water.

The whole thing might very well be a terrible idea. He wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out absolutely horrible when he opened his eyes. But it feels _right._ Sometimes things just do.

He lets himself get absorbed into the contentedness he gets from just putting whatever's in his mind down on paper, unencumbered by the results.

He might have to do this more often.

The next time he opens his eyes, he looks out of the window and is surprised to find that it's already quite dark. When he checks the time, it's past nine. He doesn't look at his drawing yet because he feels like it should be more of a reveal. He decides to look at it tomorrow morning, after he's rested and will be able to have a newer perspective on it, even if he hasn't seen it yet.

* * *

Scorpius feels kind of rotten. He's not exactly sure why, although he thinks he might have some idea. Getting a card and cake one day from his probably-crush, and getting invited out to eat the next, all the while knowing that none of it is romantic- it's a little bit saddening, and is also venturing in the realm of confusing and stressful. It was nice to spend time with Albus though. He just wishes that there was any chance- the _tiniest_ chance- that his feelings would ever be reciprocated.

But there isn't, and that's just the way it is. Just the way it will always be. He just has to accept that, or else he might consider breaking off the friendship or something equally impossible like that, but he'd never want to push himself to that.

Scorpius flops down onto his bed, book already in hand, and lies on his side. When he told Albus that he had finished it, he'd been lying. He's not exactly sure why he was dishonest about it, but he really wanted to go home. Now that he's home, though, he's not so sure how he feels. About anything.

He sits up and settles into his bed to read away his troubles nonetheless.

After a couple of minutes, he still hasn't gotten to the point where he's completely immersed in the story and can't be phased by reality. It isn't any fault of the book, either. It's frustrating when even the things that he always uses to distract himself don't work. He could go to sleep, or maybe make himself something to eat, but he just doesn't find anything he could do right now appealing. He ends up just sitting on his bed, thinking about the past two days. He tries to start reading a couple of times, but he can't concentrate on the story.

Somehow, he manages to open up his Albus drawer and start looking through it without realizing what he's doing. Looking through it makes him feel a little bit sad, but the happiness it brings is overwhelmingly stronger.

It's obvious how much he values Albus.

He only wishes that he could know how much Albus values him back- and in what way.

When he sits down in bed again to read, of _course_ he's relaxed enough from going through the drawer that he's immediately submerged in the story.

* * *

Albus is surprised how good the piece from last night looks. He's also surprised at what it looks _like._ In his groggy mind, which he's sure may be very inaccurate, it reminds him of a scorpion, and seems to kind of have elements of a familiar turtle, maybe?

It all, strangely enough, seems to point to Scorpius, but at the same time he's not really sure if it actually does, and even if it does, he has no idea why.

He tries to change it very little, now that he can actually see it, and can't think of very much that he'd want to add anyways.

It strikes him that maybe Scorpius would like it, and he considers fire calling him, before deciding that Scorpius might still be asleep since he was so tired yesterday. He does decide that he'll fire call him later, though.

When he finally does, having made himself wait for a couple of hours, he's disappointed to find that not only does Scorpius take forever to answer, when he sees Albus' face in the fire, he almost immediately makes a flimsy excuse about being too tired to talk, and basically hangs up.

He isn't too mad though, because he knows that everyone has their off days. Sometimes people just don't want to talk, and while it hurts more when it's your best friend, he's confident that Scorpius will go back to normal soon.

He doesn't sweat it very much until it's been more than three days and he abruptly realizes that Scorpius has been basically ignoring him, at which point he starts to get a little bit nervous. But he still isn't too worried.

Only when break has ended and it's been well over a week since Albus and Scorpius have really spoken does he start to get quite worried, and more than a little bit hurt.

Albus doesn't usually feel like he's being clingy or overly affectionate, and he certainly doesn't like when he does feel like that.

That's what he feels like now.

He thinks that maybe he'd stop talking to Scorpius altogether for a while if he wasn't such good friends with him. Maybe giving him space would make him more responsive, maybe he just needs time, but Albus can't figure out which of those or the many other existing options is the right one for the life of him. Since there's also a possibility that the best thing for Scorpius would be to talk to him as much as he can, Albus feels very conflicted.

It would be so easy to just let the monotony of school take over, to stop trying to talk to Scorpius and settle into a less fun routine, and just live like that. But he just wants them to be _normal_ again.

They used to talk to each other at least once a day almost everyday for, if not actually seeing each other, and their talks were usually at least half an hour.

In the week before break ended, Albus hadn't talked to Scorpius for more than five minutes at a time even _once_.

They used to always meet each other the day before they went back to school, much to the annoyance of their civil but not friendly families. They used to ride together and spend basically the whole day after their ride together.

Albus rides back to school with Lily and James, and other than the music he doesn't even like playing quietly out of the speakers, there are no sounds at all in the magical car. He's never been very close to his siblings, and he feels distinctly unwanted and alone as he rides in the back.

Even so, when they arrive at Hogwarts still without having said a single word and all get out, Lily makes a sound that indicates, from what he's noticed, that she wants to talk, much to Albus' surprise.

"Hey, thanks for riding with us."

He looks at her for a second, confused and startled.

"Ye-yeah. Sure. You're welcome?" He's sure his awkward side is showing through, and he feels suddenly frustrated with himself. Why can't he even be civil to his own sister?

As an afterthought, he adds, "Thanks for taking me, you two."

"No problem," replies James, face turning a little bit less cold and mean. Lily is even smiling at him.

Even though they part immediately after the encounter, Albus walks away smiling, and thinking that maybe his short-term estrangement from Scorpius isn't such a bad thing.

* * *

He has changed his mind since this morning.

He misses Scorpius. A lot. They had three classes together today, and Albus didn't end up talking to Scorpius any more than he did to anyone else. He's getting frustrated. He decides that it's probably best to try to talk to Scorpius about it if he can, even if it's hard to get a response.

While everyone in their dorm is getting ready for bed, Albus tries to subtly and non-threateningly corner Scorpius so that he can finally talk to him. When Scorpius freezes up, Albus tries to show him that he doesn't mean any harm, which is a strange thing to have to do.

"Hey. We haven't really talked in awhile."

Scorpius mumbles something affirmative.

"Well, I was just wondering… Is anything the matter? You seem kind of closed off."

Scorpius finally looks up, meeting Albus' eyes with surprising ferocity.

"No, nothing. I'm fine."

Albus can tell immediately that it is definitely not nothing.

It occurs to him that maybe this whole thing has less to do with him, really, and more to do with Scorpius.

So, the real question then, must be…

Why is Scorpius doing this?

* * *

Scorpius has felt himself building distance in between himself and Albus, but he hasn't seemed to be able to do anything to stop it. That, or it's too hard, or he doesn't want to.

He's just having a hard time, a really hard time, with his feelings. They hadn't been fully formed before, when Albus brought the cake and card, and not nearly as powerful as they are now, but that's not true anymore. They're raging and taking over him, and he can't bring himself to talk to Albus anymore. It would be so painful to reconcile with his crush just to inevitable confess, get his heart broken, and have the friendship end because his lingering feelings make it too awkward. As much as he wants to be friends with Albus, he _doesn't_ want to become friends and end their friendship soon after it restarts with even more passion.

He is, though, feeling the loneliness that comes from essentially cutting ties with your best friend. It probably hasn't been two weeks since he abruptly cut Albus off, and already he's closing off from the rest of the school, getting slightly worse grades, and reading probably too much as a way to try to distract himself. He's gone through about ten books in the last two weeks alone. They've actually all been pretty dang good.

Albus makes multiple attempts to talk to him, to figure out what's wrong, but Scorpius doesn't respond to any of them in a productive way.

He can't even say he doesn't have the confidence or bravery to initiate anything anymore. He is _actively_ rejecting the friendship that he'd been building for many years, and he doesn't know _why!_

Scorpius has to ask himself.

Why is he doing this?


	2. Chapter 2

After aimlessly pondering a question that he soon realizes is completely answerable, Scorpius starts pondering the same question with the aim of coming up with an answer.

It's not as easy at he was hoping it would be.

He knows that is has something to do with his crush on Albus (which he has now come to terms with for the most part), but it still doesn't really make sense. Shouldn't having a crush on someone make you want to spend more time with them?

Maybe it doesn't always have to be like that, though. Maybe it's not a cookie cutter kind of thing. When he thinks about it for a little bit more, he realizes that, in his case, their friendship obviously changed the way that Scorpius reacted to the situation. Plus, Scorpius _does_ wish he could spend more time with Albus in a romantic way, but that's so unrealistic that he doesn't want to let himself pursue it in vain.

Then that is why he isn't spending time with Albus. He wonders why he didn't figure that out until now, because it seems pretty obvious in retrospect.

Now that he's answered the question, he has to decide what to do about it.

Sadly, he finds that part to be even harder.

Ultimately, Scorpius ends up forcing himself to talk to Albus, partly because he's been a crap friend recently, and even more than that because he just _really_ misses him. He's kind of hoping that, since this is hard enough for him already, the universe will be nice for once and give him an easy opportunity to say something witty or funny or something.

Obviously, that doesn't happen.

Since he doesn't want to just greet Albus randomly in a class, because he wants to make sure Albus knows he really intends to be a good friend again, he waits.

And he waits.

After a week or so passes, Scorpius realizes that he's putting the reconciliation off and in the process inevitably making the situation worse. He also realizes that he should definitely stop. So he does.

One night, as people are finishing up dinner, he sees Albus leave from their shared table a little bit before the stream of people converges at the door. He hesitates for a moment, but forces himself to get up and tries to follow Albus surreptitiously. Judging from the puzzled looks on most of the Slytherins' faces, it's working.

Still, he follows through on his plan, and figures that as long as Albus doesn't notice until he's supposed to, Scorpius has been successful.

About halfway back to the Slytherin common room, Scorpius starts to get cold feet- figuratively. Although it is rather cold down in the dungeon. If only Hogwarts would install some kind of heater down here. House equality, right?

He's distracting himself, he notices belatedly, and tries to stop. He instead tries to plan what he's going to say to Albus when he sees him.

Maybe he should apologize. That would probably be good, although Albus might not be impressed by the whole jumping back into his life thing. Maybe he should just try to say hi, start out simple… Except, didn't he already say he didn't want to do that?

Maybe he should just go back to the Great Hall, and forget the whole thing.

Scorpius audibly sighs, and when he looks up at the person in front of him turning around at the loud noise, his eyes widen.

Of course it's Albus.

Apparently, Scorpius was walking faster than he meant to, because they're much closer together than he was hoping they would be. Mission failed. Albus has officially noticed before he was supposed to.

Scorpius forces himself to talk, because he can't give up on his mission just because of a minor complication- he needs to try to salvage it.

"Hi, Albus, I- I really want to apologize for how I've been acting recently," so he's taking the apology route, it seems, "and I was hoping that maybe I could try to fix-" he tries to come up with a good word, "us," he finishes lamely.

It sounds pretty stupid to him, so when Albus just looks at him, saying absolutely nothing, it stifles the small hope that Scorpius had that this might work. He can't take it- he just can't.

He runs.

Back in his room, he kind of freaks out.

First he gets angry. Probably more at himself than anyone, but also at Albus and everyone else he can think of. He doesn't want to be alone with his thoughts, so he takes to methodically destroying anything connected to Albus in his part of the room as a distraction. He makes sure to put up a silencing and locking charm on the door into the whole room. Then, he finds things that he can ruin by hand first, like paper cards or drawings, and rips them all up. He also throws a tiny ceramic piece from on his desk onto the floor, because he made it with Albus. After that, there isn't much, but what there is he takes to with magic, and in one case, scissors. Once everything is in satisfying pieces all over the floor, he realizes what he's done and gets extremely tired extremely quickly. He Vanishes everything on the floor, sits down tiredly on his bed, secures the curtains around his bed with a Charm, unlocks the door with another, and cries.

How is he going to function without Albus? Because that's how he's going to be now- without Albus.

He didn't even get to confess. Sure, he knows it would've ended badly, but he hates the idea that he'll never know what the outcome might've been. The minuscule amount of uncertainty inside of him is enough to start eating at him, and soon he is thinking about his missed chance to confess to his first real crush rather than how bad his life might be at the moment.

He spends over an hour sitting in bed just being alternatingly sad and angry at himself and the situation that he's in, before he realizes that the easiest way to get closure would be to do something. That makes it seem like he needs to confess, but wasn't that a terrible idea when he thought about it before?

Then he gets it. He has nothing to lose at this point. If not now, then never- and he does _not_ want it to be never. He resolves himself. He knows that their friendship is basically doomed, and he doesn't know how to fix it. He could swear he's insane for thinking this, but if they stop being friends permanently after today, he needs to confess while he can still bring himself to talk to Albus at all.

And hey, if he's going to confess and go all out in that way, why not go all out in trying to repair their friendship afterwards? Why not just go all out, in every way he can for Albus?

Scorpius unlocks his curtain with a new confidence gracing his face. Even when he falls asleep very soon after from the emotional exhaustion he has put himself through, it is somehow with a new resolve and certainty.

* * *

Albus knows that he probably screwed up- that he should've made up with Scorpius- but it already felt too late when Scorpius tried to reconcile, and Albus no longer even wants to.

Except the part where he does. He really does. He wants to let Scorpius back into his life with open arms and unlimited unconditional love, like it was before, _so_ much. But that would be stupid, obviously, and he doesn't want to have the same thing that happened this time happen again. It wasn't very pleasant to be shut out by his closest and almost only friend, without any warning or explanation, admittedly.

Still, the want is there, and he doesn't like it.

There's also the issue, if he ends their friendship, of _he doesn't have any other friends._ It's especially bad in this situation because he needs advice _badly_ and the one person who could give it in any other circumstance is not at all an option. And won't be any time in the future, it's looking like. He doesn't have anyone else like that, and he just wishes he did, for once.

Wait.

Albus can think of exactly one person, and is scared at the prospect of venturing to where he would need to go to find that one person. Plus, he hasn't spoken to them about anything important in a _very_ long time. Still...

Albus changes his destination from Slytherin to Gryffindor, and walks off, already shifting nervously and making himself unintentionally smaller.

When he finally sees her, he rushes towards her and pulls her off to the side in a futile attempt to avoid the suspicious gazes all around her.

"Lily!" Albus whisper-shouts. "I need advice, where can we go that is more private?"

She turns to her friend quickly- Irene, he thinks her name is- and when they both nod at each other, she turns back.

"Uh," Lily is clearly confused and a little bit weirded out but trying to answer all the same, and it makes Albus a little bit happy, "how about a classroom? Somewhere?"

It's not exactly an option Albus hasn't considered already, but coming from Lily it sounds better, so he agrees. They both walk quickly toward the first empty classroom, slip in, and close the door.

Lily turns towards Albus. "What happened? You look terrible."

Albus thinks for a moment.

"A lot. And I have to ask you for advice about that lot."

"Okay, shoot. I'll try my best to help."

"So, first, Scorpius has been really giving me the cold shoulder recently."

"Okay."

Albus thought he had more of an explanation than that but he's suddenly not really sure he does.

"I guess I was just wondering what you think I should do. He tried to apologize earlier today, but I didn't want to accept it at the time, so I _could_ mend our friendship, I'm sure, but I also still feel really bad about what he did."

"If I was you, which I'm not, I would probably really unleash my mean side on him, try to make him aware of what a bad friend he was, and make him feel terrible about it. I think in your case, he's been bad enough that that wouldn't be extreme at all."

"But- he was my friend for _years._ I still want to be friends! I can't be that mean to him! Plus what he did wasn't even that b-"

"Can't you? I though you were mad. I guess if I felt like he deserved it, I might reluctantly accept any apologies or attempts at mending only at that point."

Albus should probably think about why he's defending Scorpius so much, but he really doesn't want to, so he doesn't.

"Oh. So I have to... do something?"

Lily looks at Albus like he's crazy.

"Of course you do."

* * *

Albus hears someone enter the room and out of the corner of his eye, he covertly looks at the disturbance, only to find that it's Scorpius. Despite what Lily said from both angles, he neither wants to befriend or scold Scorpius at all, especially when the talk is so fresh in his mind. He doesn't look up from him homework. After talking to Lily, he had gone back to his room, and started on his homework. That's where he is now.

"You know how I've been kind of avoiding you?"

Now Albus has to look up from his homework, and does so, trying to make it seem as if he was unaware of Scorpius before that moment.

"Yes," he answers truthfully. He watches as Scorpius noticeably flinches, and then as Scorpius steels himself to say whatever he's going to say.

"Well, I didn't know why, exactly, until this morning."

 _Isn't this nice_ , Albus thinks, _now he's going to finally confess that he actually hates me and wants to officially end our friendship._

He doesn't mean for it to slip out, but-

"Oh, you've only just now realized that you hate me?"

Even though he's been thinking about how that must be the case, the prospect of hearing that right out of Scorpius' mouth is painful.

"Well, it's actually kind of the… exact opposite?"

"So you, what," Albus tries to think of something cutting, "love me or something?" Albus lets out a quiet, bitter laugh, because isn't that a funny idea, and because he's pretty sure in that moment that it was at least kind of mean, right?

Scorpius takes a deep breath, and Albus wonders why for just a moment before-

"Yeah."

A pause. Albus tries and fails to process the answer.

"What?"

They stare at each other for a full five seconds before Scorpius' shows any signs of comprehension of the question. Albus realizes that maybe he said something wrong, but he really doesn't understand what just happened.

"I- I don't- what do you mean, 'what'?" Scorpius asks.

Albus blinks and furrows his eyebrows, confused by the question.

"Well I think it's pretty clear. I mean what did you mean, because I didn't understand."

"W-why not?"

They both look at each other silently and extremely confused.

"Why didn't I understand?" Albus finally asks.

"Yes, that."

"I'm sorry, but that's a rather stupid question." Albus thinks that Scorpius may be getting a little bit dumb, because he's sure acting it right now. "I don't know why I didn't understand! I just know that you weren't making any sen-" Albus has been going through what Scorpius was agreeing to in his head, and now he finally puts it together. "Wait," he pauses. "Wait, wait, wait. It wasn't the 'or something', was it?" Scorpius shakes his head softly, looking down at his feet in apparent embarrassment. Albus' brain starts running around in circles, because it can't be, it really can't, yet- "You _love_ me? _You_ love _me_? As in, you love me romantically? _What?_ " If it was grammatically correct to have more than one question mark in written dialog, now would the time to do so.

Scorpius looks up from his shoes, a clearly forced smile distorting his face.

"Hahah…" It's almost comical how awkward Scorpius looks. "I'll just let you sit on that, yeah? Please answer me someday though. Bye!"

Albus watches in shock as Scorpius quietly opens his door and exits, gaining speed in his actions as he gets more desperate, it seems, to leave.

* * *

The only place that Scorpius can think to go to, in his extremely flustered mental state, is the common room. Having come up with nothing new, that's where he sits, about five minutes later, almost curled up into a ball on one of the couches. He lays there for what seems like a very long time before he feels a hand pat his shoulder and looks up, startled. He hopes that maybe it's Albus, but of course it isn't.

Eren and Sofi, the infamous Parkinson twins, had come into the common room a couple of minutes after he sat down. Now, they both stand above him, the more outgoing Sofi having patted his shoulder. Without waiting for him to say anything, they sit down on either side of him, and start to talk.

"We've always noticed you," Sofi starts.

"Yeah," Eren continues, "you and Albus always looked so happy together."

"We were kind of jealous, because you were so great together. But now, you seem to be less happy, and less together."

"We think they're related."

"And we were wondering if you wanted to talk about it," Sofi says. "That, or we could talk about anything else you like. I can be quite talkative when the need arises."

They give each other a knowing glance with laughter in their eyes.

 _"Quite,_ " Eren emphasizes.

Scorpius is kind of shocked speechless. They've never talked to him before now for anything not school-related, and these are the circumstances in which they do, and _this_ is what they thought the whole time?

"So," Sofi presses, "what do you think?"

"I- uh- I guess that maybe I should talk?" Scorpius only says this because they seem so much like therapists in this moment he figures it is the only rational response.

They keep their therapist-ness up when Eren says "Good!" and Sofi claps her hands together excitedly.

They pull up a chair in front of Scorpius, and surprise him by pushing him into the chair. Then, they scoot together and lean into a close but still comfortable distance from him, to begin what Scorpius can only hope won't turn into an interrogation of any sort.

"So, first," starts Sofia, "can you tell us the story of you two's recent distance, from the beginning?"

And while Scorpius' first instinct is to say that he can't, because of privacy and his crush being a pretty big part of the story, he figures that he's already been going all out in every way, as promised to himself, and might as well continue.

"Why not?"

He stumbles plenty and blushes even more, but he manages to get through the whole story in one go, and is rather proud of himself. He can tell that both of the Parkinson twins are plenty surprised by the story, but Sofi manages to get over that quickly, and when she does, Eren follows suit.

"So…" Sofi says, clearly gathering her thoughts, "you confessed. Today? I may have underestimated you in the past, Scorpius. That takes some guts."

Scorpius is flattered, for whatever reason. He's also pleasantly surprised that neither of them seem to care that he has a crush on a boy. That's pretty nice.

"Thanks."

At this point, the twins' dynamic seems to shift significantly. With one look from Sofi to Eren, he becomes much more forward and starts to talk the majority of the time.

He starts with, "I think that you and Albus can and should continue to be friends at the very least, and maybe if he reciprocates your feelings, you can try something more romantic." So Scorpius isn't the only one with tentative and unlikely hopes of Albus feeling the same. "Which is just because, as we mentioned, you two are really quite good for each other, in whichever way you choose to be."

"Oh. I wish that I had any confidence that I could make either of those options work."

After that slightly self-deprecating comment on Scorpius' part, Eren locks onto it with a startlingly accurate analysis of Scorpius, his weaknesses, his strengths, and what he should do to be great, in the simplest terms. Eren's likeness to a therapist is so much that it's not even a joke inside of Scorpius' head anymore. Eren is legitimately acting like a therapist right now. And doing it well, too.

After a pause of deep thinking on both of their parts after a question from Eren, a question slips out of Scorpius.

"Eren, do you want to be a therapist later in life?"

He's not sure why he asked it, but he's not surprised when the answer is, "Yeah." Eren starts to looks more nervous than Scorpius has ever seen him look. "Did I do okay? Was it too obvious? Was I too therapist-y?"

"No, not at all. I just noticed because you were doing it so well. It seemed more professional and helpful that a student would normally be."

"Yeah? Thanks. Nowadays, as training kind of, Sofi will find people who she thinks need to talk," he smiles fondly at her, "and will get the introductions and stuff out of the way. Since it's not a official client-therapist relationship here at Hogwarts, I can be kind of awkward at first. And that isn't very becoming for a therapist. So she helps start me off. It's really nice, actually."

"We're really different in that way though, because I'm not the most perceptive as far as emotions go," Sofi comments, "so I just start him off and then sit out of it, and watch. It's super interesting. So far," she starts to lists Eren's achievements like a proud mother, "he's helped a good number of Slytherins, three Ravenclaws, about six Hufflepuffs, and even a couple of Gryffindors. The most successful were-" she stops talking and they all look at the sound of someone walking down the stairs. Scorpius' face immediately flames much more than he wishes it would. "Unimportant," Sofi finishes, before grabbing Eren (who is tugging at her just and much) and walking quickly away, presumably to give Scorpius and Albus privacy.

Albus is slowly walking down the stairs, looking some mixture of nervous and sick, while still resolutely confident. Scorpius is worried as soon as he deduces this, but he braces myself and doesn't run. He really does like Albus so much, even if it's just as a friend for now. He was such a great friend not so long ago, when Scorpius was still returning the favor.

Scorpius wants to say something as Albus walks towards him, but he can tell that he needs to let Albus talk, so he stays silent.

"Scorpius," Albus starts, "you've been a pretty bad friend recently." Scorpius finds himself nodding, because it _is_ true. "That really sucked, and still does. Please never do that again." Scorpius continues to nod. "That being said, I thought about what you said. About…" Albus looks like he's trying to squeeze the words out, so Scorpius helps him.

"About me liking you."

Albus looks relieved, and nods. He sits down on the couch next to Scorpius, still looking relatively tense, and Scorpius scoots over to give him room.

"Yes. I was thinking about that. And after I thought for awhile, I realized maybe..." Scorpius can tell that Albus is struggling. "Well, here. I know that I like you a lot, in whatever way. You've been a really great friend and person in the past, if not the more recent past. A lot of my life has been heavily influenced by your life, and vice versa. So I was thinking that maybe... Maybe your crush doesn't make absolutely _no_ sense. And," he struggles even more now, "maybe, I," he takes a deep breath, "feelthesameway, oratleastamwillingtotrydatingyou."

Scorpius is dumbfounded.

"What?"

Albus looks at him like he's crazy for even trying to get him to say it again.

"I'm not repeating that ever again, I swear."

As if only now realizing what he's just said, Albus starts to turn red, which is uncharacteristic of him and is also much to Scorpius' delight. When Scorpius pulls him into a hug, smiling brilliantly, Albus tucks his head into the space between Scorpius' neck and the couch, in a very endearing, adorable show of shyness.

"Are you, the valiant and brave Albus Potter, embarrassed?" Scorpius can't help laughing delightedly a little at the thought.

Albus just buries himself further, and Scorpius watched as his ears turn noticeably redder.

"No," comes the indignant and muffled reply.

Scorpius laughs again, and he thinks he feels Albus smile into his shoulder.

When Albus finally finds the inner strength to show his face again, he hesitantly raises his head. He isn't wrong to do so either, because as soon as he can physically do so, Scorpius grabs the sides of Albus' face and plants a soft and well-aimed kiss right on the tip of his nose.

Albus lets out a cute little squeak, burying his head once again, and with even redder ears and blush creeping steadily down his throat this time. He doesn't come out again for a long time, but when he does, albeit shyly, he's smiling.

* * *

 **Sorry for this being so late (as always) BUT** **I have a question for all of you great people- you may call yourselves readers. Should I include another, probably shorter chapter? This would literally just be filled with fluff, all the fluff I could metaphorically squeeze out of my body. Is that appealing to anybody, or should I just leave it at what I have?**


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